UNIT THREE
FEUDALISM
The Story of William the Conqueror
The story of William began in 1065 in England. King Edward, nicknamed the "Confessor", because he had become quite religious toward the end of his life, was dying. Edward was the last Anglo-Saxon king of England. He had no heirs old enough to succeed him, and everyone was wondering who the next king would be. There were no firm rules of succession then as there are now, and Edward had not definitely designated a successor; at least, if he had, no one in the immediate area knew who it was.
One reason for this was that Edward was not a person of strong character. He found it hard to make up his mind, and he listened to other people far too much. He could be pushed around, and he often did what the last person he talked to said to do. Put in your language and in your times, Edward couldn't "just say no"! He bent under peer pressure.
Before Edward the Confessor, some Vikings had ruled England. For this reason , the king of Norway, who was a descendant of these Vikings, Harald Hardrada, thought he should be the next English king. Harald, in fact, was about ready to invade to claim the throne. For this reason, the English knew they needed a new king right away, and he would have to be a good soldier, able to command armies. On his deathbed, Edward designated Harold Godwine, the Earl of Essex, his brother in law and the commander of his armies, as king. Harold was a good choice in that he was popular with the English , he was an able soldier, brave and courageous, and he had shown governing ability in the way he had run his earldom.
Over in Normandy, across the English Channel in France, Duke William of Normandy, when he heard the news of Harold's coronation, threw a fit! He was furious. For all these years, he had thought that the English throne would be his when Edward died. William was related to Edward through his mother; there was actually some reason for him to be King of England; Harold Godwine was not related by blood at all. Besides this, Edward had been partially raised in France with William. Edward had many Norman friends and advisers. What's more, William claimed, Edward had said that William could be king! If this promise was made, it was probably made in 1051 when William visited Edward in England. William also claimed that Harold Godwine knew that he, William, had been chosen king and had promised to help him get the throne! For this reason, William declared Harold Godwine an "oath-breaker" and prepared for war against him. Oath-breaking meant not keeping a promise, and this was considered a serious breach of honor in those days.
Over in Norway, Harald Hardrada was also getting ready for war. He too was angry over the appointment of Godwine. In England, people waited. In April of 1066, they saw an unusual thing in the skies. They called it a "long haired star"! They did not know it was a comet, of course, and they believed it was a bad omen. Something horrible was about to happen! They hadn't long to wait until they found out.
In August of 1066, William was ready to go for England, but a wind came up in the Channel. The English Channel, though very small, is one of the most treacherous bodies of water in the world to try to navigate. Even in modern times, with all our technology, in World War II, there were only 2 days in June when conditions would be right to cross the Channel, and even then, the crossing had to be postponed one day. William was delayed, because the wind was blowing too hard and in the wrong direction, so his boats could not go. They were, after all, dependent on the wind. This was actually good for William because it meant that Harald Hardrada from Norway would get to England first, and the English would wear themselves out fighting him.
Harald Hardrada did indeed arrive in England before William. He landed on the northeast coast in August of 1066. However, King Harold (Godwine) knew he was coming and marched to meet him. He caught the Norwegians by surprise and defeated them at Stamford Bridge.
No sooner had Harold Godwine defeated the Norwegians than he heard that William had landed on the southern coast of England. Apparently, a couple of days after the victory at Stamford Bridge , the wind had changed and William was able to navigate the Channel. Harold began the long march from where he had just fought Norwegians to meet William in the south. His men were already tired from battle, and the long march did not improve things. William and his men, on the other hand, were fresh and ready to do battle. Harold's men did not have the latest technology of that day in weaponry. They were still using battle-axes, knives and daggers while William had the newest thing in weaponry, the longbow (bows and arrows). William's men fought on horseback and they could kill from a distance. The English were no match for them, so William won the battle, which took place at a place called Hastings, in October of 1066. All that remained after this was to make sure there was no one left that could revolt and to get into London. William decided to take a roundabout route to London, forcing the surrender of some important places on the way. The long route was a great idea, because by the time he got to London, the people there had decided to surrender without a fight. William of Normandy was crowned English king on Christmas Day, 1066.
The first thing William did upon being crowned king was to reward his faithful Norman and French nobles who had fought with him. English nobles who swore loyalty to William were allowed to keep their lands. But the English were unhappy under Norman rule, and they revolted in 1069. After this revolt was put down, William no longer showed any mercy for the English. He took their land and he burned their villages. He gave the land to Norman nobles. After five years of fighting the English off and on, William was master of England.
In 1087, William had a sort of census taken in England. He had all the people and their animals counted, and had lists made of any property they might have. He then used this to collect taxes. The name of the census was The Domesday Book, and you can still find copies of it today.
In the summer of 1087, William was fighting the King of France and was injured. He died in September, 1087. He was remembered as hard and cruel; but he was also respected for his courage, hard work, and leadership ability. As one Englishman writing at the time put it, "He was stronger than any king before".
Why do we today remember William? Why are you reading his story and not some other king? There are many reasons. First, because as Americans, our roots bind us more closely to England than any other European country. It is from England that we took many of our government institutions and our legal system. William brought to England the Norman civil law. Up until that time England had had only common law, the customs and practices of the people. From William on, England had both - common law and civil law - making England unique among European countries. The United States followed England's example, and the United States has common law and civil law also. Second, William brought the Norman language, which would have been the French of that time. For many years, the Normans and the English did not mix socially, so England had two languages going there for awhile, Anglo-Saxon (which was a lot like the German of that time) and Norman French. Over a period of time the languages gradually merged, producing the modern day English language. However, because the languages merged so gradually, most of the words from both languages were kept! Therefore, English has one of the largest lexicons (numbers of words)of any language in the world. It is why A given English word has many synonyms; for example, you want to say a person is caring and treats others well. You can say he is "kind" (the Anglo-Saxon word) or you could say he is "gentle" (the Norman French word). For those of you who find spelling English a problem, you can blame that on the merged language, too! Many of the silent letters in English were once pronounced, but over time, they became silent as the language changed. Third, William brought the Norman Christian church, which was a lot closer to the Pope in Rome in loyalty than the old English church was. Last, William brought French feudalism to England and that is what the rest of this chapter will concern.
What is feudalism?
Feudalism was the economic, political and social setup of the Middle Ages. No one planned feudalism; it developed in response to a need. That need was for protection and defense. The constant warfare of the early Middle Ages made this a necessity. The way feudalism began was that those who were big and strong grabbed pieces of land and were able to hold onto them. Why did they want land? The reason for this is that having land then did you more good than anything else. With enough land, you could grow your own food, and thereby be assured of something to eat. With enough land, you could build yourself a fortress to hide in and also to fight others from. However, you would need help with your land. You would need help with defense and help with growing the food. So, you were willing to make deals with other people. In exchange for one thing, you gave another. Those who hadn't gotten land needed a place to live and stay so they were willing to make the deals to get what they needed. Feudalism developed far beyond this simple description, of course, but this was the basic idea behind it.
Nobles
Since land was the most valuable thing to have then, land made you wealthy and powerful. Those that had the land were the highest class in society because they were wealthy and powerful. They were called nobles or lords. Technically, all the land in a country belonged to the king, and the nobles in the country owed him service and knights if he needed them. However, it depended on how strong the king was whether that meant anything or not. In William's case, it meant something. William was smart. He made the nobles get permission from him to build castles. However, not all kings were as smart as William. In lots of countries, the nobles pretty much did as they pleased.
Castles
The nobles built huge castles on their land. At this point, you have to get the fairy-tale pictures of castles out of your head. The original castles were built for defense and they looked more like a fortress than anything else. Castles were built on hills; if you didn't have a hill, you made one; this was called a motte. At first, castles were made of wood, but the nobles soon turned to using stone; stone was harder to knock down, and it didn't catch on fire. Castles had tall and thick stone walls around them; this made it hard to get inside them. Usually, before you got to the wall, you would have to cross the moat, a deep ditch with water in it. This was a deterrent then because people didn’t swim. There would be a drawbridge over the moat and a big iron gate for members of the noble's family to get in and out of the castle, but both the bridge and the gate could be closed to keep enemies out. Inside the wall, there was the main body of the castle, which was called the keep, and this was where the noble's family lived. The keep also had an entrance guarded by a iron gate known as a portcullis. The keep was usually two or three stories high. The main room on the first floor was the great hall which was very big. It was big because this was where everybody spent their time and because in emergencies, you might have to have everyone in your particular care inside the castle. Besides the keep, there was a courtyard, known as the bailey. In the bailey, there were kitchens, workshops, storage huts and stables, and some living quarters for servants. Castles were not particularly comfortable places to live. Made of stone as they were , they were cold and drafty in winter, and not very comfortable in summer either. The great hall was the only place in the castle you could count on to be heated; it wasn't that easy to heat a castle when all you had to do it with was a wood fire. It wasn't easy to light the castle either, as you didn't want to make too many windows. Windows were expensive to make, and also could possibly let enemies in.
Knights
The noble who had the castle "hired" lesser nobles, called knights, to fight for him. The knight swore allegiance to the noble in a ceremony called homage. Homage meant that the knight owed service and that he, the knight, would come at a moment's notice to fight for the noble. In return for this , the noble gave the knight land. That knight could then build his own castle, and he could hire other, lesser, knights if he wanted to fight in his place for the noble. He could also leave it to his son, who would have the same relationship with the noble as his father had had. The number of knights and castles grew larger and larger as time went on.
Peasants
The noble also "hired" farm laborers, called peasants, to raise the food. Usually, the peasants had been homeless and they didn't have much to offer in a society that valued being able to fight wars as a top priority in life. Therefore, a peasant couldn't make a very good deal with the noble. He was allowed to stay on their noble's land, and he received a one room hut to live in - he and all his family. He also received protection in the event of war. The peasant also got from the noble a small patch of land around his hut. where he could grow peas, beans, onions and other vegetables. He might also have a fruit tree on his patch of land, if he was lucky. Peasants also sometimes had animals like cattle, sheep or a few chickens. He "paid" for this by working the noble's fields for him, both his assigned strips of land and the noble’s personal strips of land, and by then giving the noble the greater majority of everything he raised. He also had to pay the noble fees such as for the use of the noble's oven to bake the noble's bread! and such as a fee for when his children married. Where was he to get this fee? He had to try to get it by trading or selling that little part of the crop he was allowed to keep. The peasant also had to give the noble ten days "free labor"; this meant that the peasant had to stop doing his own work and do whatever kind of work the noble wanted him to do whenever the noble said do it for a total of ten days each year. The peasant’s hut was made of something called wattle and daub. This was sticks and twigs mixed with mud to hold them together. The roof of the hut was straw with a hole in it. The hole was to let the smoke out from the fire which was in the middle of the one room of the hut. However, the hole also let the rain and snow in! The floor of the hut was dirt, swept until it was hard. The peasant had no status in feudalism. Since he had no land, he was a "nothing". The noble owned the land he was on, and had the right of eminent domain, meaning he could do what he wanted with that land, including throwing the peasant off if he wanted to. The noble owned all the animals on the property, too; a peasant could not kill a rabbit if he saw one and he was hungry; he couldn't even kill the rabbit if it was eating his cabbages that he was growing for the noble. The noble might want that rabbit as game for his hunting party next week. Last, a peasant could not leave the noble to look for a better deal somewhere else. He was bound to the land. That means he went with it, as part of the property, like a swimming pool might go with a house today.
Craftsmen
The noble also "hired" craftsmen, people who could make things like furniture, cloth, horseshoes, pots and pans; things that in those days you made with your hands. They had the same status as peasants and received the same things, except they got the tools of the trade instead of strips of land to farm as the peasant did.
This whole collection of people, buildings and land was known as a manor. Manors were perfect for a time of constant warfare because they were self sufficient; that is, no one absolutely had to leave that manor. However, they were isolating, too. People didn't see any new faces for months on end sometimes. It was difficult to spread new ideas.
The social structure of the feudal setup was very inflexible. You were born into society at a certain level and there you stayed. Nobles did not mix socially with peasants. They only mixed with other nobles. The same was true of the peasants. There was no way to improve your status with hard work.
The church participated in feudalism also. The church, as time went on, became a big landowner! People left land to the church in the hopes of making up for some of their sins and having a better afterlife. The church then gave the land to the higher clergy, who could have their own castles built on it. These clergy could then gather their own sets of knights, peasants and craftsmen.
Feudalism grew increasingly more disorganized as time went on. The problem with it was that there was not one central authority to whom everyone pledged allegiance. A person only owed service or allegiance to the person that he had made the deal with. No one else had any claim on him. Therefore, if the king is fighting a war, he can only expect the nobles he gave land to show up. The knights that those nobles made a deal with might or might not show up. You never knew. The higher clergy with manors might give you some knights but they didn't have to; they'd sworn allegiance to the Pope! Knights who had pledged allegiance to another noble could rebel against the king; they hadn't promised the king they wouldn't. It was a mess. Countries that made progress had to leave this feudal mess behind. We will see as the year progresses how difficult this journey out of feudalism was.
For a noble with a manor, getting more land involved either war to get it or marriage. If you won another nobles' manor in war, you got the whole manor, noble, knights, peasants and craftsmen. If you married another noble's daughter it was expected you'd get some land, maybe some knights, but probably not the whole thing.
Life on a Manor - Work
The noble ran the manor. It was his duty to know all about the manor and to govern it, so to speak. He had to keep accounts. He had to know where his peasants were and what they were doing. He had to decide what crops to grow and on which fields to grow them. Every spring he assigned the peasants strips of land to farm and told them what to plant and grow on their strips. He had to make sure that the better strips were alternated with the not so hot ones so that no peasant got all the good fields and no peasant got all bad ones. He was responsible for the health of the peasants and seeing to it that they had the tools they needed to work with. He had to settle any disputes that might arise on the manor, and of course, he had to be ready to fight for the king at any time, and he had to make sure his knights were ready to fight for him. His wife helped him with this; she was particularly responsible for running the manor house, planning meals, planning for visitors (no visitor just stayed overnight because of the difficulty of travel. When visitors came, they stayed awhile), and for nursing the sick.
Peasants farmed. Every spring the noble assigned the peasant the strips of land her was to work. The noble also told the peasant what to grow. Because of the amount of work it took in those days to grow the crop, the peasant's entire family had to work in the fields. The farming tools they had weren't great. They had plows to dig up and turn over the earth; these were drawn by oxen. The peasants sowed the seeds by hand, and then they tended the fields by hand. When time came to harvest the crops, the only tools they had were sickles and scythes. These tools had a long wooden handle attached to a curved cutting blade. They were heavy and hard to handle. Since the entire manor depended on what peasants grew for food in the winter, the peasant had to work hard all the time. In the fall, each peasant had to help cut enough fodder for the animals in the winter.
In addition, each peasant had to give the noble ten days free service whenever the noble wanted it. He had to stop his work and work on something the noble wanted him to do whenever the noble asked him to. He also had to work on the noble's land on certain days each week.
To make sure that the peasants worked and didn't slack off, the noble appointed a foreman called a reeve. The reeve was just another peasant. He had to know the farming customs of the manor and see to it the tools were ready for each task. He also saw to it peasants got to work on time. Also to help with the work, and to fill in for the noble if he was absent, the noble appointed a bailiff. The bailiff was a kind of manager. He was a free man, as opposed to a peasant, who as you know, was bound to the land. He had to have a little education, too, because he helped the noble with his accounts.
A craftsman's work was to make things the manor needed that could not be grown! There were many kinds of craftsmen; here are just a few: tailors, tinkers, potters, smiths, masons, candle makers, carpenters, armorers and so on. Since everything needed to be made by hand in those days, craftsmen were always busy. Materials to do their work with and the necessary tools to do it were given them by the noble. They lived in huts, however, like the peasants, and had the same status. They also had to give the noble the ten days’ free service, and at harvest time, they had to help in the fields.
Life on the Manor – Lifestyles
The nobles
The nobles had the best lifestyle. They got the better things of life. They ate well; for breakfast, they had meat, ale, and bread; for dinner, they had meat again, cheese, vegetables in season, and sweets for dessert. For supper (about 5 P.M.) they had more meat, cheese and vegetables, unless there were visitors, in which case, there would be a feast. After a feast, there would be live entertainment; there would be traveling singers and storytellers, known as minstrels and troubadours ; there might be actors doing a play, acrobats, jesters or jugglers. None of this sounds very special to us, but this was about the best you could get in those days. Nobles also got all the opportunities in life. They got an education and a chance to travel. They had nice clothes to wear. They got all the best jobs. Nobles had a chance to play games like chess and cards(look at a deck of playing cards or a chess set-the pieces of the chess set are actual ranks people could be in the Middle Ages-the face cards in the deck of playing cards are also medieval ranks-king, queen, jack{knight}, joker{jester}). Nobles had time for sports like hunting, hawking and horseback riding. Their children were tutored by the village priest; when they got old enough, the children would probably travel. The children had a chance to play and to participate in sports. Nobles' sons were trained as knights, which would be similar to military school today. Since every noble was expected to be able to fight, every noble's son had to be trained. Training began when the boy was seven, when he was assigned to the noble or knight who would teach him. From the age of seven until about fourteen, the boy was taught the skills of fighting. He was also taught proper manners, known in those days as chivalry, from the French word for horse. During this stage, as well as learn skills, the boy also waited on his knight, ran errands, took messages, that sort of thing. At fourteen, the boy became a squire. At this point the boy was ready to practice his skills. He rode with his knight into battle and carried weapons for him. At about 21, the young man was ready to go through the ceremony of homage, and he became a knight on his own. Knights kept their skills in top form by participating in play wars called jousts and tournaments. Nobles' daughters had to be taught embroidery, singing and dancing, and how to run the manor from the woman's point of view.
The peasants and craftsmen
A peasant's lifestyle was much different from a noble's. The peasant did not have the same variety of food as the noble. Breakfast consisted of bread and watered down ale. For lunch, there was more bread and ale, and maybe some cheese, if you were lucky. For dinner, there was something like stew, more bread, cheese and ale, and, in season, perhaps fruit or vegetables. They had no furniture except a few wooden stools to sit on and maybe a table. They slept on bags of straw. They hardly ever had a bath; it took time to pump water and heat it for a bath. When you did go to the trouble, the whole family bathed in the same bath water! The huts were sooty and smelly, too - after all, everybody was living there, the peasants' whole family and any animals, such as pigs or chickens that he might have. It should be no surprise to you from reading this that the average peasant didn't live to a ripe old age. Malnutrition and the lack of sanitary living conditions made everyone more susceptible to disease. Peasants got no opportunity for education. Everyone had to work in the fields and there was no time for education. Peasants never got the chance to travel, so they knew nothing of the world outside the manor. Most did not go 25 miles away from home in their entire lives. By way of contrast, some of you who live in places like Burke or Woodbridge, travel that far easily every day as you come to school and go home. Peasants knew nothing except what other people told them, and they had no way to find out if what they heard was true. The children got no chance to play, or to participate in sports. Their elders had no time for recreation. Peasants didn't have a lot of clothes either. Their clothes were made of wool, and they might have two outfits if they were lucky - one to work in and one to go to church in. Peasants lived for the holy days when they did not have to work. At some of the holy days, like Christmas, for example, and Easter, the noble held a big banquet for the peasants as well as everyone else on the manor. It is from this that we get out tradition of feasting on those holidays.
As you can see, the lifestyles of the people on the manor varied greatly. There was also a lot of inequality of treatment. The feudal setup benefited nobles and it benefited clergy and the church. It did not benefit the peasants, the craftsmen or the king. The nobles and the church wanted to keep feudalism, but the other people caught in the system did not. We will see, in the next chapter, how one group of people began to free themselves from the setup.
Chapter Questions and Outline
Feudalism (title of outline)
The story of William the Conqueror
When did the story of William the Conqueror begin?
Who was Edward the Confessor?
Why had the crisis about who the next king would be come up?
What problem related to his character did Edward have?
The three people listed below all think they should be king of England. Tell why.
William of Normandy
Harold Godwine
Which one of these men became King of England?
I. Both Harald and William prepared to attack England to fight to be king. Who went and got there first? What happened to him?
J. This whole incident helped William. How?
K. In April of 1066, the people saw a strange thing in the sky. What did they call it? What did they think it meant? What was it really?
L. When did William land in England?
M. What advantages did William have over the English?
b.
When was William crowned king of England?
What did William do when the English revolted?
What was the Domesday Book? What was it for?
When was William killed?
How was William remembered?
Find and list 4 reasons why we study William.
II>Feudalism
III>Life on a manor
Extra Credit PrOJECTS AND Questions
UNIT THREE
FEUDALISM
The Story of William the Conqueror
The story of William began in 1065 in England. King Edward, nicknamed the "Confessor", because he had become quite religious toward the end of his life, was dying. Edward was the last Anglo-Saxon king of England. He had no heirs old enough to succeed him, and everyone was wondering who the next king would be. There were no firm rules of succession then as there are now, and Edward had not definitely designated a successor; at least, if he had, no one in the immediate area knew who it was.
One reason for this was that Edward was not a person of strong character. He found it hard to make up his mind, and he listened to other people far too much. He could be pushed around, and he often did what the last person he talked to said to do. Put in your language and in your times, Edward couldn't "just say no"! He bent under peer pressure.
Before Edward the Confessor, some Vikings had ruled England. For this reason , the king of Norway, who was a descendant of these Vikings, Harald Hardrada, thought he should be the next English king. Harald, in fact, was about ready to invade to claim the throne. For this reason, the English knew they needed a new king right away, and he would have to be a good soldier, able to command armies. On his deathbed, Edward designated Harold Godwine, the Earl of Essex, his brother in law and the commander of his armies, as king. Harold was a good choice in that he was popular with the English , he was an able soldier, brave and courageous, and he had shown governing ability in the way he had run his earldom.
Over in Normandy, across the English Channel in France, Duke William of Normandy, when he heard the news of Harold's coronation, threw a fit! He was furious. For all these years, he had thought that the English throne would be his when Edward died. William was related to Edward through his mother; there was actually some reason for him to be King of England; Harold Godwine was not related by blood at all. Besides this, Edward had been partially raised in France with William. Edward had many Norman friends and advisers. What's more, William claimed, Edward had said that William could be king! If this promise was made, it was probably made in 1051 when William visited Edward in England. William also claimed that Harold Godwine knew that he, William, had been chosen king and had promised to help him get the throne! For this reason, William declared Harold Godwine an "oath-breaker" and prepared for war against him. Oath-breaking meant not keeping a promise, and this was considered a serious breach of honor in those days.
Over in Norway, Harald Hardrada was also getting ready for war. He too was angry over the appointment of Godwine. In England, people waited. In April of 1066, they saw an unusual thing in the skies. They called it a "long haired star"! They did not know it was a comet, of course, and they believed it was a bad omen. Something horrible was about to happen! They hadn't long to wait until they found out.
In August of 1066, William was ready to go for England, but a wind came up in the Channel. The English Channel, though very small, is one of the most treacherous bodies of water in the world to try to navigate. Even in modern times, with all our technology, in World War II, there were only 2 days in June when conditions would be right to cross the Channel, and even then, the crossing had to be postponed one day. William was delayed, because the wind was blowing too hard and in the wrong direction, so his boats could not go. They were, after all, dependent on the wind. This was actually good for William because it meant that Harald Hardrada from Norway would get to England first, and the English would wear themselves out fighting him.
Harald Hardrada did indeed arrive in England before William. He landed on the northeast coast in August of 1066. However, King Harold (Godwine) knew he was coming and marched to meet him. He caught the Norwegians by surprise and defeated them at Stamford Bridge.
No sooner had Harold Godwine defeated the Norwegians than he heard that William had landed on the southern coast of England. Apparently, a couple of days after the victory at Stamford Bridge , the wind had changed and William was able to navigate the Channel. Harold began the long march from where he had just fought Norwegians to meet William in the south. His men were already tired from battle, and the long march did not improve things. William and his men, on the other hand, were fresh and ready to do battle. Harold's men did not have the latest technology of that day in weaponry. They were still using battle-axes, knives and daggers while William had the newest thing in weaponry, the longbow (bows and arrows). William's men fought on horseback and they could kill from a distance. The English were no match for them, so William won the battle, which took place at a place called Hastings, in October of 1066. All that remained after this was to make sure there was no one left that could revolt and to get into London. William decided to take a roundabout route to London, forcing the surrender of some important places on the way. The long route was a great idea, because by the time he got to London, the people there had decided to surrender without a fight. William of Normandy was crowned English king on Christmas Day, 1066.
The first thing William did upon being crowned king was to reward his faithful Norman and French nobles who had fought with him. English nobles who swore loyalty to William were allowed to keep their lands. But the English were unhappy under Norman rule, and they revolted in 1069. After this revolt was put down, William no longer showed any mercy for the English. He took their land and he burned their villages. He gave the land to Norman nobles. After five years of fighting the English off and on, William was master of England.
In 1087, William had a sort of census taken in England. He had all the people and their animals counted, and had lists made of any property they might have. He then used this to collect taxes. The name of the census was The Domesday Book, and you can still find copies of it today.
In the summer of 1087, William was fighting the King of France and was injured. He died in September, 1087. He was remembered as hard and cruel; but he was also respected for his courage, hard work, and leadership ability. As one Englishman writing at the time put it, "He was stronger than any king before".
Why do we today remember William? Why are you reading his story and not some other king? There are many reasons. First, because as Americans, our roots bind us more closely to England than any other European country. It is from England that we took many of our government institutions and our legal system. William brought to England the Norman civil law. Up until that time England had had only common law, the customs and practices of the people. From William on, England had both - common law and civil law - making England unique among European countries. The United States followed England's example, and the United States has common law and civil law also. Second, William brought the Norman language, which would have been the French of that time. For many years, the Normans and the English did not mix socially, so England had two languages going there for awhile, Anglo-Saxon (which was a lot like the German of that time) and Norman French. Over a period of time the languages gradually merged, producing the modern day English language. However, because the languages merged so gradually, most of the words from both languages were kept! Therefore, English has one of the largest lexicons (numbers of words)of any language in the world. It is why A given English word has many synonyms; for example, you want to say a person is caring and treats others well. You can say he is "kind" (the Anglo-Saxon word) or you could say he is "gentle" (the Norman French word). For those of you who find spelling English a problem, you can blame that on the merged language, too! Many of the silent letters in English were once pronounced, but over time, they became silent as the language changed. Third, William brought the Norman Christian church, which was a lot closer to the Pope in Rome in loyalty than the old English church was. Last, William brought French feudalism to England and that is what the rest of this chapter will concern.
What is feudalism?
Feudalism was the economic, political and social setup of the Middle Ages. No one planned feudalism; it developed in response to a need. That need was for protection and defense. The constant warfare of the early Middle Ages made this a necessity. The way feudalism began was that those who were big and strong grabbed pieces of land and were able to hold onto them. Why did they want land? The reason for this is that having land then did you more good than anything else. With enough land, you could grow your own food, and thereby be assured of something to eat. With enough land, you could build yourself a fortress to hide in and also to fight others from. However, you would need help with your land. You would need help with defense and help with growing the food. So, you were willing to make deals with other people. In exchange for one thing, you gave another. Those who hadn't gotten land needed a place to live and stay so they were willing to make the deals to get what they needed. Feudalism developed far beyond this simple description, of course, but this was the basic idea behind it.
Nobles
Since land was the most valuable thing to have then, land made you wealthy and powerful. Those that had the land were the highest class in society because they were wealthy and powerful. They were called nobles or lords. Technically, all the land in a country belonged to the king, and the nobles in the country owed him service and knights if he needed them. However, it depended on how strong the king was whether that meant anything or not. In William's case, it meant something. William was smart. He made the nobles get permission from him to build castles. However, not all kings were as smart as William. In lots of countries, the nobles pretty much did as they pleased.
Castles
The nobles built huge castles on their land. At this point, you have to get the fairy-tale pictures of castles out of your head. The original castles were built for defense and they looked more like a fortress than anything else. Castles were built on hills; if you didn't have a hill, you made one; this was called a motte. At first, castles were made of wood, but the nobles soon turned to using stone; stone was harder to knock down, and it didn't catch on fire. Castles had tall and thick stone walls around them; this made it hard to get inside them. Usually, before you got to the wall, you would have to cross the moat, a deep ditch with water in it. This was a deterrent then because people didn’t swim. There would be a drawbridge over the moat and a big iron gate for members of the noble's family to get in and out of the castle, but both the bridge and the gate could be closed to keep enemies out. Inside the wall, there was the main body of the castle, which was called the keep, and this was where the noble's family lived. The keep also had an entrance guarded by a iron gate known as a portcullis. The keep was usually two or three stories high. The main room on the first floor was the great hall which was very big. It was big because this was where everybody spent their time and because in emergencies, you might have to have everyone in your particular care inside the castle. Besides the keep, there was a courtyard, known as the bailey. In the bailey, there were kitchens, workshops, storage huts and stables, and some living quarters for servants. Castles were not particularly comfortable places to live. Made of stone as they were , they were cold and drafty in winter, and not very comfortable in summer either. The great hall was the only place in the castle you could count on to be heated; it wasn't that easy to heat a castle when all you had to do it with was a wood fire. It wasn't easy to light the castle either, as you didn't want to make too many windows. Windows were expensive to make, and also could possibly let enemies in.
Knights
The noble who had the castle "hired" lesser nobles, called knights, to fight for him. The knight swore allegiance to the noble in a ceremony called homage. Homage meant that the knight owed service and that he, the knight, would come at a moment's notice to fight for the noble. In return for this , the noble gave the knight land. That knight could then build his own castle, and he could hire other, lesser, knights if he wanted to fight in his place for the noble. He could also leave it to his son, who would have the same relationship with the noble as his father had had. The number of knights and castles grew larger and larger as time went on.
Peasants
The noble also "hired" farm laborers, called peasants, to raise the food. Usually, the peasants had been homeless and they didn't have much to offer in a society that valued being able to fight wars as a top priority in life. Therefore, a peasant couldn't make a very good deal with the noble. He was allowed to stay on their noble's land, and he received a one room hut to live in - he and all his family. He also received protection in the event of war. The peasant also got from the noble a small patch of land around his hut. where he could grow peas, beans, onions and other vegetables. He might also have a fruit tree on his patch of land, if he was lucky. Peasants also sometimes had animals like cattle, sheep or a few chickens. He "paid" for this by working the noble's fields for him, both his assigned strips of land and the noble’s personal strips of land, and by then giving the noble the greater majority of everything he raised. He also had to pay the noble fees such as for the use of the noble's oven to bake the noble's bread! and such as a fee for when his children married. Where was he to get this fee? He had to try to get it by trading or selling that little part of the crop he was allowed to keep. The peasant also had to give the noble ten days "free labor"; this meant that the peasant had to stop doing his own work and do whatever kind of work the noble wanted him to do whenever the noble said do it for a total of ten days each year. The peasant’s hut was made of something called wattle and daub. This was sticks and twigs mixed with mud to hold them together. The roof of the hut was straw with a hole in it. The hole was to let the smoke out from the fire which was in the middle of the one room of the hut. However, the hole also let the rain and snow in! The floor of the hut was dirt, swept until it was hard. The peasant had no status in feudalism. Since he had no land, he was a "nothing". The noble owned the land he was on, and had the right of eminent domain, meaning he could do what he wanted with that land, including throwing the peasant off if he wanted to. The noble owned all the animals on the property, too; a peasant could not kill a rabbit if he saw one and he was hungry; he couldn't even kill the rabbit if it was eating his cabbages that he was growing for the noble. The noble might want that rabbit as game for his hunting party next week. Last, a peasant could not leave the noble to look for a better deal somewhere else. He was bound to the land. That means he went with it, as part of the property, like a swimming pool might go with a house today.
Craftsmen
The noble also "hired" craftsmen, people who could make things like furniture, cloth, horseshoes, pots and pans; things that in those days you made with your hands. They had the same status as peasants and received the same things, except they got the tools of the trade instead of strips of land to farm as the peasant did.
This whole collection of people, buildings and land was known as a manor. Manors were perfect for a time of constant warfare because they were self sufficient; that is, no one absolutely had to leave that manor. However, they were isolating, too. People didn't see any new faces for months on end sometimes. It was difficult to spread new ideas.
The social structure of the feudal setup was very inflexible. You were born into society at a certain level and there you stayed. Nobles did not mix socially with peasants. They only mixed with other nobles. The same was true of the peasants. There was no way to improve your status with hard work.
The church participated in feudalism also. The church, as time went on, became a big landowner! People left land to the church in the hopes of making up for some of their sins and having a better afterlife. The church then gave the land to the higher clergy, who could have their own castles built on it. These clergy could then gather their own sets of knights, peasants and craftsmen.
Feudalism grew increasingly more disorganized as time went on. The problem with it was that there was not one central authority to whom everyone pledged allegiance. A person only owed service or allegiance to the person that he had made the deal with. No one else had any claim on him. Therefore, if the king is fighting a war, he can only expect the nobles he gave land to show up. The knights that those nobles made a deal with might or might not show up. You never knew. The higher clergy with manors might give you some knights but they didn't have to; they'd sworn allegiance to the Pope! Knights who had pledged allegiance to another noble could rebel against the king; they hadn't promised the king they wouldn't. It was a mess. Countries that made progress had to leave this feudal mess behind. We will see as the year progresses how difficult this journey out of feudalism was.
For a noble with a manor, getting more land involved either war to get it or marriage. If you won another nobles' manor in war, you got the whole manor, noble, knights, peasants and craftsmen. If you married another noble's daughter it was expected you'd get some land, maybe some knights, but probably not the whole thing.
Life on a Manor - Work
The noble ran the manor. It was his duty to know all about the manor and to govern it, so to speak. He had to keep accounts. He had to know where his peasants were and what they were doing. He had to decide what crops to grow and on which fields to grow them. Every spring he assigned the peasants strips of land to farm and told them what to plant and grow on their strips. He had to make sure that the better strips were alternated with the not so hot ones so that no peasant got all the good fields and no peasant got all bad ones. He was responsible for the health of the peasants and seeing to it that they had the tools they needed to work with. He had to settle any disputes that might arise on the manor, and of course, he had to be ready to fight for the king at any time, and he had to make sure his knights were ready to fight for him. His wife helped him with this; she was particularly responsible for running the manor house, planning meals, planning for visitors (no visitor just stayed overnight because of the difficulty of travel. When visitors came, they stayed awhile), and for nursing the sick.
Peasants farmed. Every spring the noble assigned the peasant the strips of land her was to work. The noble also told the peasant what to grow. Because of the amount of work it took in those days to grow the crop, the peasant's entire family had to work in the fields. The farming tools they had weren't great. They had plows to dig up and turn over the earth; these were drawn by oxen. The peasants sowed the seeds by hand, and then they tended the fields by hand. When time came to harvest the crops, the only tools they had were sickles and scythes. These tools had a long wooden handle attached to a curved cutting blade. They were heavy and hard to handle. Since the entire manor depended on what peasants grew for food in the winter, the peasant had to work hard all the time. In the fall, each peasant had to help cut enough fodder for the animals in the winter.
In addition, each peasant had to give the noble ten days free service whenever the noble wanted it. He had to stop his work and work on something the noble wanted him to do whenever the noble asked him to. He also had to work on the noble's land on certain days each week.
To make sure that the peasants worked and didn't slack off, the noble appointed a foreman called a reeve. The reeve was just another peasant. He had to know the farming customs of the manor and see to it the tools were ready for each task. He also saw to it peasants got to work on time. Also to help with the work, and to fill in for the noble if he was absent, the noble appointed a bailiff. The bailiff was a kind of manager. He was a free man, as opposed to a peasant, who as you know, was bound to the land. He had to have a little education, too, because he helped the noble with his accounts.
A craftsman's work was to make things the manor needed that could not be grown! There were many kinds of craftsmen; here are just a few: tailors, tinkers, potters, smiths, masons, candle makers, carpenters, armorers and so on. Since everything needed to be made by hand in those days, craftsmen were always busy. Materials to do their work with and the necessary tools to do it were given them by the noble. They lived in huts, however, like the peasants, and had the same status. They also had to give the noble the ten days’ free service, and at harvest time, they had to help in the fields.
Life on the Manor – Lifestyles
The Nobles
The nobles had the best lifestyle. They got the better things of life. They ate well; for breakfast, they had meat, ale, and bread; for dinner, they had meat again, cheese, vegetables in season, and sweets for dessert. For supper (about 5 P.M.) they had more meat, cheese and vegetables, unless there were visitors, in which case, there would be a feast. After a feast, there would be live entertainment; there would be traveling singers and storytellers, known as minstrels and troubadours ; there might be actors doing a play, acrobats, jesters or jugglers. None of this sounds very special to us, but this was about the best you could get in those days. Nobles also got all the opportunities in life. They got an education and a chance to travel. They had nice clothes to wear. They got all the best jobs. Nobles had a chance to play games like chess and cards(look at a deck of playing cards or a chess set-the pieces of the chess set are actual ranks people could be in the Middle Ages-the face cards in the deck of playing cards are also medieval ranks-king, queen, jack{knight}, joker{jester}). Nobles had time for sports like hunting, hawking and horseback riding. Their children were tutored by the village priest; when they got old enough, the children would probably travel. The children had a chance to play and to participate in sports. Nobles' sons were trained as knights, which would be similar to military school today. Since every noble was expected to be able to fight, every noble's son had to be trained. Training began when the boy was seven, when he was assigned to the noble or knight who would teach him. From the age of seven until about fourteen, the boy was taught the skills of fighting. He was also taught proper manners, known in those days as chivalry, from the French word for horse. During this stage, as well as learn skills, the boy also waited on his knight, ran errands, took messages, that sort of thing. At fourteen, the boy became a squire. At this point the boy was ready to practice his skills. He rode with his knight into battle and carried weapons for him. At about 21, the young man was ready to go through the ceremony of homage, and he became a knight on his own. Knights kept their skills in top form by participating in play wars called jousts and tournaments. Nobles' daughters had to be taught embroidery, singing and dancing, and how to run the manor from the woman's point of view.
The Peasant
A peasant's lifestyle was much different from a noble's. The peasant did not have the same variety of food as the noble. Breakfast consisted of bread and watered down ale. For lunch, there was more bread and ale, and maybe some cheese, if you were lucky. For dinner, there was something like stew, more bread, cheese and ale, and, in season, perhaps fruit or vegetables. They had no furniture except a few wooden stools to sit on and maybe a table. They slept on bags of straw. They hardly ever had a bath; it took time to pump water and heat it for a bath. When you did go to the trouble, the whole family bathed in the same bath water! The huts were sooty and smelly, too - after all, everybody was living there, the peasants' whole family and any animals, such as pigs or chickens that he might have. It should be no surprise to you from reading this that the average peasant didn't live to a ripe old age. Malnutrition and the lack of sanitary living conditions made everyone more susceptible to disease. Peasants got no opportunity for education. Everyone had to work in the fields and there was no time for education. Peasants never got the chance to travel, so they knew nothing of the world outside the manor. Most did not go 25 miles away from home in their entire lives. By way of contrast, some of you who live in places like Burke or Woodbridge, travel that far easily every day as you come to school and go home. Peasants knew nothing except what other people told them, and they had no way to find out if what they heard was true. The children got no chance to play, or to participate in sports. Their elders had no time for recreation. Peasants didn't have a lot of clothes either. Their clothes were made of wool, and they might have two outfits if they were lucky - one to work in and one to go to church in. Peasants lived for the holy days when they did not have to work. At some of the holy days, like Christmas, for example, and Easter, the noble held a big banquet for the peasants as well as everyone else on the manor. It is from this that we get out tradition of feasting on those holidays.
As you can see, the lifestyles of the people on the manor varied greatly. There was also a lot of inequality of treatment. The feudal setup benefited nobles and it benefited clergy and the church. It did not benefit the peasants, the craftsmen or the king. The nobles and the church wanted to keep feudalism, but the other people caught in the system did not. We will see, in the next chapter, how one group of people began to free themselves from the setup.
Chapter Questions and Outline
Feudalism (title of outline)
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B. Relationships in feudalism
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2. What did the nobles’ wives have to do?
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3. What did the peasant have to do?
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Extra Credit PrOJECTS AND Questions
1. Find out how castles were attacked and defended.
2. Find out more about armor. It changed over the centuries.
3. When they were fighting, knights wore "coats of arms" on a shield which they wore on their arm. The coats of arms were necessary for identification purposes. They said what family you belonged to. Your family may have one of these. Do some research on heraldry and explain your family's coat of arms to the class.